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Monday, February 13, 2012

It would appear on paper at least as if the Devils are entering a bit of a break in their schedule over the next week-plus before they get real busy again through the end of the regular season.

Tuesday’s game in Buffalo is the first of three in a row against teams not currently in playoff spots – they host Anaheim on Friday before visiting Montreal on Sunday -- and they’re spread out over five days. Those three contests are followed by a game in Toronto next Tuesday against a Maple Leafs team fighting to hang on to eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

After a stretch of seven tough games in 12 days following the all-star break (all but one were against playoff teams), the competition might appear a big easier, but Devils coach Pete DeBoer views this as one of the toughest times of the season with the Feb. 27 trade deadline only two weeks away.

“This is desperation time,” DeBoer said today. “Buffalo’s 5-1-1 in their last seven and they’re playing for their life as are the other teams we’re playing this week – Anaheim, Montreal and Toronto. It’s not necessarily the opponent as much as the desperation level and right now to me the desperation level doesn’t get any higher than the two weeks prior to the trade deadline from an individual point of view because players are trying to show that they want to stay in the organizations they’re in and also from a team point of view because it’s really the cutoff date for a lot of teams to make decisions on which way they’re heading.

“So, there’s no easy games this time of year.”

The Devils will be looking to rebound from a disappointing effort in a 3-1 home loss to Florida on Saturday. It was their first regulation defeat since a 4-1 loss to Philadelphia on Jan. 21, ending a 5-0-2 run.

The Devils had the day off Sunday to recharge their batteries after appearing a little tired on Saturday.

“I’m not making excuses, but it was our first regulation loss in eight games (5-1-2),” DeBoer said. “We just didn’t have it. We had it early and it faded, so we have to look (at) why. You have to give them some credit and also when you take a perspective, taking the emotion of the game out of it, you look at the reason why didn’t we have any jump? Why didn’t we have legs? Why couldn’t we create anything? That’s one of the reasons that pops up.

“Hopefully, we rectified that. We got away from the rink for a day and we’ll come back reenergized here.”

After a game in which his team scored only one goal for the second time in three games, DeBoer tinkered with his lines again today, moving rookie center Adam Henrique back to the top line with Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk and putting Patrik Elias back on the second line with Petr Sykora and David Clarkson. Dainius Zubrus shifted to center the third line between Alexei Ponikarovsky and Steve Bernier.

DeBoer liked what the Parise-Elias-Kovalchuk lined did together and hasn’t ruled out going back to it.

“I’m not married to any combinations,” DeBoer said. “We’re just trying to score some goals and get some depth scoring. We had one (goal) last game and we’ve gone with some different combinations today, but that doesn’t mean we won’t end up back where we were again.”

Elias first moved up to play with Parise and Kovalchuk while Henrique was out with a groin strain. Now, after playing the last four games, Henrique has shown he’s completely healthy, so that factored into the decision to reunite him with Parise and Kovalchuk.

“I think he’s got a few games under his belt since the injury and his timing is coming back and he’s starting to get some jump back and look like he did before the break,” DeBoer said. “Having to play Zubrus at center because of the injury to (Travis) Zajac and (Ryan) Carter being out too, two centermen being out, we’ve had to look for different combinations.”

“We had a tough game (Saturday),” Henrique said. “The offense wasn’t clicking like it was in the games before. The guys played six strong games in a row. It was just one of those nights, so it’s something we can fix. We just got back at work today and, hopefully, will get back on track as well.”

Another factor in the move is that Sykora appears to play better with Elias than without him. Sykora has only one point – an assist on a goal scored by Elias Thursday against St. Louis during a partial line change – in his last eight games.

“I think they compliment each other,” DeBoer said of Sykora and Elias. “And I think Petr definitely misses Patrik when they’re not together.”

It’s no secret that Sykora, who played in his 500th game as a Devil on Saturday, feels comfortable playing with Elias. They were linemates during Sykora’s first stint with the Devils and demonstrated the magic was still there when he returned to the team this season.

“Obviously, when I played with Patty I felt like I had a little more offense, but nothing really has changed for me here since Day 1 of training camp,” Sykora said. “I’m just happy that I come in every single day and I’m in the lineup and I don’t really worry about who I’m playing with or who I don’t play with. All I worry about is to stay healthy and to try to play as good as I can.”

Sykora has played in all 55 of the Devils’ game so far this season, putting up 12 goals and 15 assists, but hasn’t scored a goal since Jan. 19 against Boston.

“Obviously, the puck is not going in for me the last few games,” he said. “I still feel like I’m getting chances here and there. For me to continue to play, more than scoring, I have to continue to just play the system and make sure I do those little things they ask me to do. That’s what I have to do and the scoring will come along the way.”

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.